Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

@VikingScott: Unfortunately, Brink is a first-person shooter. This doesn't make much sense with all of the character customization and the beautifully animated SMART system, but I understand the merits of an FPS over a TPS somewhat.

You should still definitely buy it, though. Brink is bound to change your conception of what an FPS is capable of.

Who knows? You might even end up liking it more than Gears of War 3. In fact, that's fairly likely, seeing as how GoW is stuck with many conventions of a shooter.

Kanluwen wrote:To be 100% fair: Splash Damage is the company that produced the game. Bethesda is the distributor.

Splash Damage is fantastic at doing games. Bethesda is not.

Precisely why I pre-ordered it. I am a big Splash Damage fanboy. Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars are still on my frequent play list. These games have always been my favourite objective based first person shooters. The SMART system for traversing terrain and obstacles is something that I have never seen done in a FPS before. I expect Brink to take what I like about its predecessors and up it to the next level.

Majesticgoat wrote:Precisely why I pre-ordered it. I am a big Splash Damage fanboy. Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars are still on my frequent play list. These games have always been my favourite objective based first person shooters. The SMART system for traversing terrain and obstacles is something that I have never seen done in a FPS before. I expect Brink to take what I like about its predecessors and up it to the next level.

The objective wheel is a natural progression of the mission system found in Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory or Quake Wars. It is much more dynamic and all-encompassing than it's predecessors, and I feel that anyone who is a fan of Splash Damage's previous efforts will love it. Hell, anyone who appreciates the 'team' aspect of a team-based shooter will love it. Even 'lone wolves' will love it and be rewarded by it, though not nearly as much as a team player. Since you now gain XP for utilizing it, everyone will use it. It generates objectives based on the state of your team (on top of giving you missions that are based on what map you're playing), which is awesome.

The SMART system kind of reminds me of Mirror's Edge (with simpler controls), but it will prove to be much more useful in a competitive shooter than a single-player first-person platformer.

LordofHats wrote:WoW at release was horribly buggy and well known for its horribly glitch filled release at the time. It's what, seven years old now? They've had time to lose most of the glitches people notice.

And even in it's size, WoW never has as many variables in play as a game like Bethesda's Elder Scrolls series. Quests and events only have a two outcomes (win/lose). Some Oblivion quests have as many as five. EDIT: To clarify. WoW is simpler (drastically so) to a game like Oblivion or Fallout to the extent that events don't have complicated outcomes.

Maybe it was just my personal experience from playing on the PS3 with not being able to give 2 bloodgrass for the vampire quest, or watching a robot fly into the sky in Fallout 3 which prevented me from repairing the big town robots. That and the random freezing, my god the random freezing. For every hour of gamelpay I had at least five minutes of the game being frozen.

Splash Damage made Quake Wars: Enemy Territory? That makes it iffy to me, I enjoyed playing it but for some reason I never ranked up in the game, even when I was playing online it reset my rank each time I logged off. That left a bad taste in my mouth despite the fact that building artillery in the game was fun.

For those who haven't gotten it preordered, Toys R Us looks like they may be giving a gift card when you buy the game there. Best Buy will probably do $10 on a gift card or have it bundled with something else.

The Clavicus Vile dog statue and the bloodgrass glitches were the only really problematic glitches in Oblivion, and they weren't really game breaking. Bloodgrass is only a problem if you actually let yourself become a vampire, which in Oblivion is never a good idea (why on earth anyone would want a weakness to fire in a game where you go into hell...) EDIT: You might want to check if it still annoys you idk. The bloodgrass glitch has sadly been studied by nerds and they've determined that it only occurs if things happen in a certain order.

halonachos wrote:That and the random freezing, my god the random freezing. For every hour of gamelpay I had at least five minutes of the game being frozen.

This is either an over-exaggeration, or you're running the game on completely incompatable hardware or software (which is not Bethsoft's fault). It's hard to find a hardware 'sweet spot' to run the Gamebryo II engine, but it can't possibly be optimized for everything. I remember Morrowind having this problem for me until I upgraded my video card. Once I did, it was smooth sailing from there.

halonachos wrote:Splash Damage made Quake Wars: Enemy Territory? That makes it iffy to me, I enjoyed playing it but for some reason I never ranked up in the game, even when I was playing online it reset my rank each time I logged off. That left a bad taste in my mouth despite the fact that building artillery in the game was fun.

Damn, you just seem to have awful luck with games in general. Did you try reinstalling the game, or did you just give up and never attempt to rectify the situation after that happened?

Your rank was never saved in Enemy Territory, both Quake Wars and Wolfenstein.

Rank was always set to do that in both ET games.

LordofHats wrote:The Clavicus Vile dog statue and the bloodgrass glitches were the only really problematic glitches in Oblivion, and they weren't really game breaking. Bloodgrass is only a problem if you actually let yourself become a vampire, which in Oblivion is never a good idea (why on earth anyone would want a weakness to fire in a game where you go into hell...) EDIT: You might want to check if it still annoys you idk. The bloodgrass glitch has sadly been studied by nerds and they've determined that it only occurs if things happen in a certain order.

Sadly it was on the PS3 which never got a patch, and never got the keep that had the cure in it. As to why I became a vampire I got incredibly distracted.

1) Did daedric god quest where you kill the vampires in the cave.
2) Contracted disease, no problem I have a Cure Disease in the chest at home.
3) Its relatively close so I'll walk.
4) Ooh, a dungeon, wouldn't hurt to go there.
5) That dungeon was fun, now back to... ooh a ruin.
6) Level up, gotta go rest.
7) You are now a vampire; wait, what?
8) Can't give bloodgrass; put game away for a couple of months, start new profile and do quest right away.

As far as quake wars, it was on PS3 as well.

Like I said, it was fun but the hassle of not leveling up kind of ruined it for me. Didn't leveling up give you bonuses though, it has been awhile since I actually played.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Actually, after looking at the wiki for Quake Wars it reminded me that there was indeed a campaign for it. I remembered that I would beat the first level of the campaign, but it would either kick me or just not load the next level. Basically I've only played two levels of the game.

The balance between light and heavy classes is insane.

A heavy can sustain damage, but cannot travel fast, nor mount more than waist high objects. I see maps designed so the heavy's take longer to get to the front while the light classes vault over buildings and engage on the rooftops, the team whos light cavalry wins would surely have a huge upperhand as the heavy's who arrive on the opposing team would arrive with no support.

Calling them "classes" isn't necessarily correct, Jaon.

It's your body type, which you decide with your customization.

Halonachos wrote:As far as quake wars, it was on PS3 as well.

Like I said, it was fun but the hassle of not leveling up kind of ruined it for me. Didn't leveling up give you bonuses though, it has been awhile since I actually played.


Actually, after looking at the wiki for Quake Wars it reminded me that there was indeed a campaign for it. I remembered that I would beat the first level of the campaign, but it would either kick me or just not load the next level. Basically I've only played two levels of the game.

Leveling up each class gave different perks, and each weapon type did the same.

For example: Covert Ops would receive steadier aiming and faster disguises.

The 'campaign' part sounds like it was a PS3 issue in them trying to add single player.

Being light, medium, or heavy body type is entirely up to you.

Even though being able to reach any point on any map and sprint incredibly fast might seem unfair, you have to keep in mind that you can take out a light character in just a few shots. I see this as completely balanced, as light characters will have to use SMART at every opportunity to stay alive, and will have to avoid direct conflict at all costs. Heavy characters can withstand the punishment that light characters can dish out from their many vantage points, and if they can manage to get them in their crosshairs, they won't last long at all (there are no one-hit kills or 'sniper' rifles, by the way, so you don't have to worry about light characters with rifles too much, so long as you're constantly vigilant).

I foresee most people going with the medium body type to give themselves a fair amount of balance between health and agility.

Personally, I plan on my first character being a light body type with most of his skill points distributed to the medic class. I simply want to be able to aid my team to the best of my ability, and though I think being a heavy medic would be cool, being able to sprint and leap across the map to reach teammates in need seems more useful in most situations. I'm not much for sniping or camping either; I'm usually a shotgun junkie in most FPS games. Though this conflicts with the light body type, at least most people will know that I'm not a cheap bastard attempting to exploit the game just to up my kill count.

Chrysaor686 wrote:Personally, I plan on my first character being a light body type with most of his skill points distributed to the medic class. I simply want to be able to aid my team to the best of my ability, and though I think being a heavy medic would be cool, being able to sprint and leap across the map to reach teammates in need seems more useful in most situations. I'm not much for sniping or camping either; I'm usually a shotgun junkie in most FPS games. Though this conflicts with the light body type, at least most people will know that I'm not a cheap bastard attempting to exploit the game just to up my kill count.

I was not even aware that body type was not class specific nor that it altered how well you could clear obstacles.. That adds a whole new twist. I might have to go with your fast/agile medic plan as well.. Although a medic may fair well by being able to sustain a bit more damage too. I guess I will find out tomorrow.

Does it use Steamworks for game setup and matchmaking or does it have its own built in matchmaking and friend system?

My first character?

Light Operative. Gonna be craaaaaaaaaaaaazzzy fun getting up to high perches to snipe

Was always a medic. Did that in Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Wolf ET, and Quake Wars, and the legacy will go on! Do not worry though, I will distribute health to you guys! I am not one of those rambo medics that has the intent to run and gun and only heal themselves.

I'm sad that there is no Field Ops.

That was my favorite class, ever. Getting to call down artillery and airstrikes made me happy in W:ET.

Majesticgoat wrote:Does it use Steamworks for game setup and matchmaking or does it have its own built in matchmaking and friend system?

Brink will run on Steam on the PC. I'm fairly sure you can pre-load the game if you pre-ordered it from Steam (I read this in a news article; unfortunately, I had to pre-order from Gamestop).

Matchmaking is based entirely on your level. If you are, say, level 15, the game will only attempt to set you up with other players who are also level 15. This will circumvent the awful matchmaking often present in most FPS games, wherein a rank 1 player can be set up with a max rank player. Hopefully, there will be no such thing as 'prestige' (where you rank down after hitting max level to gain bonuses).

The PC version of Brink will have a dedicated server tool, accessible through Steam, that will not require the main game to run. Dedicated servers are awesome, as they ensure that every player is running at the same ping. Unfortunately, both the X-Box 360 and the PS3 will not have access to this feature, and will be stuck with player-created servers (which often means really uneven ping, with the advantage always going to the player who started the server).

That's not what I've heard. I've been hearing them saying that 360/PS3 will both be having dedicated servers--just not player run.

If its run through steam then the PS3 should have that as well on it. Seeing as though they started to have steam when Portal 2 came out... and the network was hacked so people couldn't use it, but they have it just in case it decides to come back up.

I may get it seeing as though I'll get my 10% employee discount and a $15 gift card when it comes out. Hopefully PSN will be back up.

Now how will the gear work out, in MAG each set of gear costs a certain amount of weight. You can have heavy armor and a sniper rifle, but no frag grenades because the armor and rifle weigh a ton for example. Is it possible to have a Heavy Operative and the likes?

Kanluwen wrote:That's not what I've heard. I've been hearing them saying that 360/PS3 will both be having dedicated servers--just not player run.

I've read through every piece of media I could find related to Brink, and they have confirmed multiple times that servers on the console versions will not be dedicated. This may just be hopeful fans; there is not a single game running on X-Box Live or PSN that I can think of that has dedicated servers (not even flagship franchises owned by Sony or Microsoft).

@halonachos: You can have up to two weapons at a time (which are gained by completing challenges), and may switch your loadout at will. You can only use a knife if you have a sidearm (pistol) equipped; otherwise you can use SMART to attack and knock down enemies in close range combat (knives do more damage but do not cause knockdown). Everyone has access to frag grenades, but the Soldier Class has access to molotovs which can hold an enemy in place. As far as I know, you can use any weapon as any class.

As far as I know, there is no 'Armor', only body type and buffs to your health from a medic. If you choose a heavy body type, you will run slow and only be able to vault over waist-high objects with SMART, but you will have more health than a medium or light body type.

Yes, it is perfectly possible to have a Heavy Operative, as you choose your body type when you create your character (as far as I know, you can change anything about your character at will, but the body type may be locked in place once you choose it).

I'm definitely going to get it. I love the setting, the idea, pretty much everything about it.

Just bought it from Steam.
Will be playing it in an hour or so.

Hit me up on Steam: 82ndWoody{USA}

Getting it on 360, but waiting until next month as Botcon is June 2-5.

So, I just downloaded it on Steam...

And it's not working...

Seriously?!

There may be a certain time of day when the game will actually become 'active'. Usually, preloads do not work directly at midnight (though they should, in theory). It is possible that they don't want to give an unfair advantage to people who bought it directly from Steam instead of pre-ordering it at a retailer.

If Steam is letting you play it, but it crashes when you boot the game up, you may want to try reinstalling it.

Chrysaor686 wrote:plus about eight dollars a month in order to access all of the game's groundbreaking multiplayer content

I hope you are talking about the Live subscription because I ain't gettin' no game with its own subscription and I've not seen anything about such a thing on the game's site

But yes, I hope to be getting it for my birthday a week or so after the release date.

Yes, I was referring to the X-Box Live subscription.

We all saw how APB fared. Though this looks to be a much better game, I still don't think they could possibly get away with charging a subscription fee to play it.

My Gold account hasn't been active for at least half a year. After I got every achievement in Red Dead Redemption, I didn't really feel the need for it.

I play more than enough games on live to make it worthwhile (and beating Kan all the time makes it even more worthwhile ).

On an aside - I absolutely loved W-ET and played it all the time back in the day. The thing that eventually annoyed me was all the different servers requiring slightly different downloads to be able to play on them meaning you had to wait for ages downloading stuff before you were eventually kicked from the queue when the map restarted.

I've waited a long time for a game similar to W-ET to come into the popular sphere, and I love the mix of team based and individual play that Brink seems to have. I also love that people will not be able to effectively break the game and stop poeple playing by making custom files for their playlists.

On an aside - I absolutely loved W-ET and played it all the time back in the day. The thing that eventually annoyed me was all the different servers requiring slightly different downloads to be able to play on them meaning you had to wait for ages downloading stuff before you were eventually kicked from the queue when the map restarted.

I've waited a long time for a game similar to W-ET to come into the popular sphere, and I love the mix of team based and individual play that Brink seems to have. I also love that people will not be able to effectively break the game and stop poeple playing by making custom files for their playlists.

Custom files are run-of-the-mill for most PC FPS games (If you've played any Counter-Strike at all, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about). On X-Box Live, you'll never have to worry about this at all.

However, Brink already has tons of customization and seems to be a very solid game overall. The entire year it was delayed was mostly spent tweaking, refining, and balancing the game (most games don't get half that much time dedicated to fine-tuning). The maps were designed from the ground up with SMART in mind. The weapon and character customization seems so fleshed out that I doubt people will feel the need for custom skins or modifications. I'm sure that there won't be much custom content forced on players, aside from the occasional Unreal Tournament soundbyte (if any custom content is even compatible with the game in the first place).

I really hope that this game becomes as popular as it deserves to be. In reality, it should automatically trump Call of Duty, Halo, Killzone, and anything similar by it's design alone. Though I doubt it will reach such monumental levels, Splash Damage deserves to be rewarded for creating such a groundbreaking game

Chrysaor686 wrote:Custom files are run-of-the-mill for most PC FPS games (If you've played any Counter-Strike at all, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about).

I played it back before it became CS:Source. I think I played it up until about 1.5? Don't think I ever played any game where I had to sit downloading files... May just not remember it though. Certainly never had to wait for 20 minutes only to be disconnected before I had even joined the game

On X-Box Live, you'll never have to worry about this at all.

One of the reasons I like the 360

Though it is a pain for games where you have to pay a fortune for extra maps, content and so on (especially when they should have been included in the original game -_- ), while you can download a million times more stuff for the PC version for free.

SilverMK2 wrote:I play more than enough games on live to make it worthwhile (and beating Kan all the time makes it even more worthwhile ).

I didn't know you were starting to hallucinate.

On an aside - I absolutely loved W-ET and played it all the time back in the day. The thing that eventually annoyed me was all the different servers requiring slightly different downloads to be able to play on them meaning you had to wait for ages downloading stuff before you were eventually kicked from the queue when the map restarted.

I've waited a long time for a game similar to W-ET to come into the popular sphere, and I love the mix of team based and individual play that Brink seems to have. I also love that people will not be able to effectively break the game and stop people playing by making custom files for their playlists.

I'll be able to review it for you by the time you finish at work, hopefully. UPS says it's on truck for delivery.

Look on the brightside. At least you won't be cajoled into joining me for the Gears 3 Beta again?